Toeing The Line: Let's Argue About Restarts

Reluctantly crouched at the starting line Engines pumping and thumping in time The green light flashes, the flags go up Churning and burning, they yearn for the cup They deftly maneuver and muscle for rank Fuel burning fast on an empty tank Reckless and wild, they pour through the turns Their prowess is potent and secretly stern.

One would have to think that it would not be such a big deal because it really is a very small part of our sport, once you think about the large scale of rules packages and violations of illegal parts, and drug testing team members, and checking tires for bleeder holes, and spinning out on purpose to make sure your team mate gets into The Chase…you would think it would not be that big of a deal. You would think that. But, leave it to the NASCAR fan, and I love every one of you, by the way, to get in an uproar about what amounts to be a few feet on the track.But then again, sometimes our sport is a sport of inches.So, the Joey Logano fans are saying that Matt Kenseth jumped the final restart.The Matt Kenseth fans are saying it is all sour grapes.Who is right?Who is wrong? Well, what does the rule say? It doesn’t really matter what the rule says, because it is NASCAR that enforces the rules they put into play.Take that for what it’s worth to you, as we all have our feelings about NASCAR, its rules, and the sanctioning body’s enforcement of them.In this case, NASCAR reviewed the restart and found that Matt Kenseth was not in violation of said rules, and it allowed the restart to stand as it was. That ruling, however, is not going to sit well, as expected, with a lot of NASCAR fans, just because it seems inconsistent with ruling made in similar situations in the past.(At this point, if you’re going to ask me about it, this is where I toss my arms up in the air, fill my ample cheeks with air, and shake my head as I exhale with my lips flapping like a snorting horse.

No trophy, no flowers, no flashbulbs, no wine He's haunted by something he cannot define Bowel-shaking earthquakes of doubt and remorse Assail him, impale him with monster-truck force There’s really one way to fix all of this, since we cannot seem to be adults about it.It’s like leaving the kids home alone and believing they won’t trash the place.They can’t do it, so you don’t leave them alone.NASCAR wanted to put the restarts in the drivers’ hands, but they keep trashing the place.So, let’s take it out of the drivers’ hands and put it into the hands of the flag person.Then of course, you’re going to have the anticipating driver looking through the windshield just waiting for that flag person’s arm to move in the slightest direction toward a flag waving motion.Now, we all know the green flag is a tradition in our sport, and it doesn’t need to go away.It could use a little bit of help though.How about when the leader reaches a certain point on the race track, a randomized timer is tripped and somewhere between zero and four seconds, and that’s just a suggestion, the green lights come on to restart the field, and whoever gets to the start finish line first does so, and it’s legal as long as they did not go before the green light. What does that do, though?What does it accomplish?Well, think about Homestead.Think about the third attempt at a green-white-checkered finish, and fuel is tight, and the Championship is on the line.Think about a mechanical decision maker, such as an automated method of restarting a race, and the possibility that it could fail.(How many times have we been treated to faulty caution lights recently?) Maybe on second thought, we should leave it like it is, and in the hands of the drivers and the rulings of NASCAR.Perhaps a “no-call” in this situation is better that something faulty erroneously picking out the unfortunate leader of a race with two laps to go and buzzing him or her out for jumping the line. And thus, a ruined chance at a win, not to mention a lost Championship, and a driver left to wonder what could have been.You don’t know what you’ve got until you’ve lost it, and right now, our system, though not perfect, is quite reliable.As they speed through the finish, the flags go down The fans get up and they get out of town The arena is empty except for one man Still driving and striving as fast as he can.*The song lyrics in this article are from “The Distance” by Cake.

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